I, Clara: The Virtuosa of Europe, with Juliet Stevenson and Lucy Parham

About the show

Join actress Juliet Stevenson and pianist Lucy Parham for Parham’s acclaimed composer-portrait of Clara Schumann.

Created by Lucy Parham in 2019 to celebrate 200 years since Clara Wieck Schumann’s birth, I, Clara tells her extraordinary life story in her own words. The narrative is drawn from letters and diaries, interspersed with live performances of Clara's works and music by Robert Schumann, Brahms, Liszt, Felix Mendelssohn and Chopin.

Clara Schumann was a truly exceptional woman: not just a devoted wife to the composer Robert Schumann, but a ground-breaking musician in her own right. Over a period of 60 years she gave over 1,500 concerts and pioneered the piano recital format so familiar to us today.

A child prodigy, she was groomed for stardom by her piano-teacher father and by the age of eight was dazzling audiences throughout Europe. When her composer husband Robert declined tragically into mental illness, she continued - as mother of their eight children - both to run the household and to make an international concert career to support the family.